Norwegian Embassy in US watches Enslaved on tour

Wow, talk about commitment to the arts. Read this in the CM (Century Media) newsletter. Looks like the Norwegian Embassy in Washington DC saw Enslaved & Opeth while they were playing there. Don't know if any of them were fans but just shows how open the Norwegians are. They did mention that Enslaved & Opeth are a 'death metal' band, which are NOT TRUE (now anyway). Enslaved are now a 'progressive metal' band while Opeth I'd say are the same, previously 'viking metal' & 'death/doom metal' were the respective musical styles.

If only Malaysia's Government was as supportive as this and not just saying Black metal is a cult and is Haram...

Norwegian Embassy makes it metal

By: Kiki Ryan and Jeff Dufour
Washington Examiner
05/29/09 12:05 AM EDT

You can’t say the Norwegian Embassy doesn’t take seriously its commitment to supporting the country’s art. Even when that art happens to be death metal.
On Wednesday night, the Norwegian death metal band Enslaved played the 9:30 Club, its first show in D.C. (Sample lyrics, for the uninitiated: “As we emerged/From darker dungeons/Splendor of yellow hells/Expanded swollen eyes.”) And, to the crowd’s surprise and delight, there were a group of embassy staffers in the VIP section, getting a shout-out from front man Grutle Kjellson.
Anne Myklebust, a cultural adviser at the embassy, said she and four of her colleagues went to see the show. But that wasn’t by any means the beginning of their support. She said the embassy helped the band out with funding for its U.S. tour. So “they asked if they could see the embassy,” and Wednesday afternoon, the band met with Ambassador Wegger Strommen for an hour.
Did they wear suits?
“No,” Myklebust laughed. “They wore their road wear of T-shirts and shorts. But the ambassador wore a suit.”
The second half of the night’s bill: Swedish metal band Opeth. So were any staffers from the Swedish Embassy on hand? “We know them pretty well, but we didn’t see any of them,” Myklebust said.
The Swedish Embassy was closed Thursday afternoon, so we couldn’t confirm that no one attended. But maybe the Norwegian Embassy just rocks harder.
CM news letter via washingtonexaminer